A day in the life of broody Butterscotch

During the winter when Butterscotch went broody I just closed all the nest boxes and after a few days she came out of it and continued spending her days with the rest of the flock as usual.

Now though I have four other girls laying so closing the nest boxes is not an option. I therefore have a different routine. I get Butterscotch out of the nest box for the morning sunflower seeds, again at lunch time, once more mid afternoon and again for the bedtime corn. At this point I close the nest boxes so that she goes to roost in the chicken shed which I feel is better for her than disturbing her again by moving her from the nest box to the chicken shed myself.

I know they are supposed to have the sense to come out of the nest box a few times a day to eat, drink, poop and scratch or dust bath but I have never seen Butterscotch do this without my intervention.

Maybe if I left her she would do this but I prefer to take her out so that I know she has had some breaks and she seems to respond well to this intervention. By that I mean that she doesn’t turn straight back to the nest box but accepts my helping her to take a break and as quickly as she can she goes for a scratch, sometimes almost a dust bath, a quick preen, then food and water, a large broody poop somewhere along the way and then back to the nest box.

At least this way I can actually see her have some food and water and a little exercise. I decided to record her day with photographs.

Butterscotch is in the nest box

I lift Butterscotch out of the nest box

I close the nest box

A quick cuddle, I usually put her straight down but made an exception today

I put her down and touch her tail to move her off the spot

She has a furious peck

And scratch

She almost has a dust bath as Barley watches

She has a quick preen

She eats some pellets from the floor, no time to take them from the dish

She has some water

Some more pellets

Some more water

Then she heads back

To the nest box

In she goes

And fluffs herself up again

At the end of the day I lift her out again and she joins in with the bedtime corn

She tries to find her way back into the nest box which I have now closed.

She tries from the other side

It must be here somewhere

Maybe up here

Maybe down here

She gives up and goes to bed

A little later all the girls are in and Butterscotch is in her usual position in the middle

And so Butterscotch ends her day ready to do it all over again tomorrow. The other girls are managing to get their eggs laid and Butterscotch goes through this routine each day  and repeats the very same actions even down to standing on the nest box at the end of each day while searching for the way in.

I am satisfied that she is eating and drinking, scratching and pooping and we will continue in this way until she comes out of her broody spell once more. I guess we will be doing this at regular intervals all summer. At least she is a docile girl and no trouble to pick up and she lays very well in between her broody spells.